Seniors Back Pay Parity for Aged Care Workers
Press release
15 February 2011
Seniors Back Pay Parity for Aged Care Workers
Older Australians have backed union calls for pay parity in the aged care sector, saying that, without it, system reform would be impossible.
The calls follow the Productivity Commission’s draft report into aged care, the first step towards much waited reform, which offers up bonds and reverse mortgages as funding solutions but says little about the sector’s underpaid and overstretched workforce.
Addressing the Australian Nursing Federation’s Valentine’s Day rally at a Melbourne nursing home yesterday, National Seniors chief executive, Michael O’Neill, said staffing issues must lie at the heart of reform.
“Ultimately it’s the nurses who, through their everyday one-on-one interactions with nursing home residents, determine how our most vulnerable older Australians - our mums and dads, grandmas and grandpas - live out their final years,” he said.
Yet, as research conducted for National Seniors by Access Economics in 2010 revealed, attracting and retaining staff is one of the biggest challenges facing the sector.
“It’s unacceptable that nurses working in aged care are paid $300 a week less than their colleagues in the health sector.
“And it’s unacceptable that in the next ten years nursing home staff numbers are projected to increase by around 14 percent as demand jumps by almost 60 percent,” said O’Neill.
“Currently, the system is understaffed, overstretched and unsustainable”.
“Unless we address the wages and conditions of aged care workers, reform will be impossible because, ultimately, aged care is about real people, real lives and ageing with dignity,” said O’Neill.
The Productivity Commission will hand down its final report in June.
Media enquiries: Sarah Saunders 0409 055 156
With a quarter of a million members Australia-wide, National Seniors is the consumer lobby for the over 50s. It is the fourth largest organisation of its type in the world.
15 February 2011
Seniors Back Pay Parity for Aged Care Workers
Older Australians have backed union calls for pay parity in the aged care sector, saying that, without it, system reform would be impossible.
The calls follow the Productivity Commission’s draft report into aged care, the first step towards much waited reform, which offers up bonds and reverse mortgages as funding solutions but says little about the sector’s underpaid and overstretched workforce.
Addressing the Australian Nursing Federation’s Valentine’s Day rally at a Melbourne nursing home yesterday, National Seniors chief executive, Michael O’Neill, said staffing issues must lie at the heart of reform.
“Ultimately it’s the nurses who, through their everyday one-on-one interactions with nursing home residents, determine how our most vulnerable older Australians - our mums and dads, grandmas and grandpas - live out their final years,” he said.
Yet, as research conducted for National Seniors by Access Economics in 2010 revealed, attracting and retaining staff is one of the biggest challenges facing the sector.
“It’s unacceptable that nurses working in aged care are paid $300 a week less than their colleagues in the health sector.
“And it’s unacceptable that in the next ten years nursing home staff numbers are projected to increase by around 14 percent as demand jumps by almost 60 percent,” said O’Neill.
“Currently, the system is understaffed, overstretched and unsustainable”.
“Unless we address the wages and conditions of aged care workers, reform will be impossible because, ultimately, aged care is about real people, real lives and ageing with dignity,” said O’Neill.
The Productivity Commission will hand down its final report in June.
Media enquiries: Sarah Saunders 0409 055 156
With a quarter of a million members Australia-wide, National Seniors is the consumer lobby for the over 50s. It is the fourth largest organisation of its type in the world.
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